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  • CAREER COLUMN

Don’t get mad, get equal: putting an end to misogyny in science

Subtle forms of misogyny attack female leadership and coerce women to conform to conventional gender norms. It’s time to call out these behaviours, say Alison Bentley and Rachael Garrett.
  1. Alison Bentley

    1. Alison Bentley is director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, Mexico.

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  2. Rachael Garrett

    1. Rachael Garrett is a professor of conservation and development and a geographer at the University of Cambridge, UK.

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The scientific community has made measurable, albeit slow, progress in terms of diverse representation in senior roles, particularly among women. In the United Kingdom, for example, the proportion of professors who are women has risen from 12.6% in 2000 to 28% in 2021. Yet, as two women who have held senior roles at several scientific institutions, it is our experience that women are not treated in the same way as our male counterparts. Our daily experiences can be filled with trials — including microaggressions, emotional labour, comments about our appearance and insinuations about our performance — that chip away at our mental well-being and lead us to consider leaving science as a career. We are speaking out as white women who come from privileged backgrounds, and we know that the effects of misogyny are likely to be orders of magnitude worse for female researchers of colour, who are also likely to be fewer in number, or in less-senior positions, in institutions in the global north.

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Nature 619, 209-211 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02101-x

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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